OT - Windows Help

[Pvt. Ryan]

One of the computers in my office hangs on the Windows95 startup screen. Dell said to reinstall Windows. Anyone have any less drastic advice?

[WWB]

Gotta love Dell. Instead of getting competent people, they write a manual which generally starts with 'Weird problem--Reinstall from CD image.'

What you can do:

1) Disconnect any extraneous devices, especially ones that can catch a power spike like modems or NICs.

2) Try to start. If it works, you know it was a fried piece of hardware hanging when windows starts.

3) If that fails, try starting in safe mode by hitting F8 when it is booting. Then do START-RUN and type in SFC, which will check your system files. If any are found to be corrupt, you might need a windows CD.

A better description of the problem will lead to a more accurate solution.

WWB

[Pvt. Ryan]

Thanks, I will try that.

[Pvt. Ryan]

The modem was bad. Our building did something with the power this weekend. Everything is on surge surpressors, but I guess the modem fried anyway. I don't need the modem since we have DSL now, but I have to get something to fill the opening. Our voice mail system also crashed. I love Mondays.

Thanks for the advice and helping me save money and a ton of work!

[WWB]

Glad to hear. Learned that trick after spending 1.5 hours doing everything I could to get our EVPs home computer to boot. Finally unplugged the modem to take it in, realized I needed to look at one more setting, and lo and behold it booted. After that I have always eliminated that variable on non-booting machines.

And after dealing with dell tech support, there is little wonder why good white-box buys from a local dealer with personal service make much more sense.

WWB